Strategy Platform for Software Products Company
- Custom Software Development
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Jan. 2019 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"The thing that impressed me most about Cultum was their ethics and commitment to keeping their promise to us."
- Other industries
- Australia
- 11-50 Employees
- Online Review
- Verified
A software products company partnered with Cultum in order to help develop a strategy, planning, and performance platform for their business.
The Cultum team helped the company incrementally build and deliver improved versions of the platform over a period of two years. In that time, they exceeded their core project goals to deliver an MVP that met the functional, non-functional, and analytics requirements of their market.
The client submitted this review online.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company and your position there.
skefto is an Australian based company that delivers software products and services focussed on enabling improved performance, strategy and planning. My position is the Director of Innovation and Strategy at skefto leading the product strategy and development of the platform.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
For what projects/services did your company hire Cultum, and what were your goals?
We hired Cultum to deliver end to end software development services for the group-up development a strategy, planning and performance platform - skefto.com. Key services included:
- System architecture
- System design
- Web development (React)
- Backend components (Node - API Architecture (GraphQL, RESTful API)
- Database architecture
- Deplyoment and infrastructure support Our goals for the project were to:
- Build minimum viable product to enable the sale of a strategy, planning & performance solution that is able to be used enterprise wide
- Build minimum viable product that addresses a range of non-functional requirements such as usability, user experience, security, availability, scalability and performance
- Provide an MVP analytics solution & reporting capability through integration with common 3rd party reporting tools
SOLUTION
How did you select Cultum and what were the deciding factors?
We selected Cultum after a rigorous interview process that was facilitated through upwork. Cultum presented many benefits however the key deciding factors included:
- Cultum's focus on innovation and use of the latest technologies
- Demonstrated experience and capability working on large complex projects
- High quality language skills
- Willingness to work with other 3rd party agencies involved in the project
- Professional, punctual, and organised
- Mature software development processes and in particular in Agile/SCRUM
- Having a pool of technical resources with a diverse set of skills
- Commitment (they often worked after hours and on weekends to meet deadlines)
- Transparent and open
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
Functional deliverables include:
- Build an enterprise software platform based on a series of user stories in an agile environment
- Build a series of end user and administrator web screens and functions
- Build a set of web-services/APIs that for communications between the web and database
- Database design and build
- Built prototypes for demonstration & review Non-functional deliverables include:
- - Deliver Solution Architecture design
- Deliver Web Services / API architecture
- Enforcing best practice design patterns (e.g. single-container, sidecar, ambassador etc)
- Enforcing security controls for use in application (e.g. encryption)
- Ensuring the platform is build with strong scalability, resiliency and performance
- Ensure responsive design is used when developing the platform for cross browser and multi device compatibility
- Source code control and versioning
- Deployment into Development, Testing and Production environments
- Unit, security, scalability and performance testing Core technologies utilised include:
- JavaScript
- React.js
- HTML5 / CSS3
- RESTful APIs
- NodeJS - Agile / Unit Testing
- GraphQL - DevOps / Docker
- GIT lab
- Trello
- PostgreSQL
- Power BI Embedded
- AWS, Azure and Digital Ocean
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
Worked closely throughout the project with a dedicated project lead. Overall, there were 3 full time staff working across this project. Their details include:
- 1 x project lead and full stack developer and DBA
- 1 x front end web developer
- 1 x back end/API developer
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
Over a 2 years period we adopted an Agile methodology to incrementally build and deliver improved versions of the platform. We exceeded our core projects goals to deliver a minimum viable product that met our customers functional, non-functional and analytics requirements.
Key results that our project is delivering for our clients include:
- Providing a platform that provides a basis for improved performance, strategy and planning.
- Providing a state-of-the-art user interface and a highly engaging user experience.
- Providing a platform that provides both insightful and engaging visualisations, reports and dashboards
- Providing a tool that allow for high levels of configuration
- Providing a robust security model
- Providing a system that is scalable and performs well under heavy load
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.
We adopted and Agile SCRUM project methodology and scheduled formal virtual stand-ups meetings 3 times per week. In between the formal meetings we also connected with various team members as required during each sprint.
We used Trello to manage the product backlog and drive the SDLC which included design, build, testing and release. Gitlab was used to manage source control. Most importantly the team at Cultum was willing to meet at any time and work above and beyond their call of duty.
We often collaborated and worked after hours and on weekends to meet project deadlines.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
The thing that impressed me most about Cultum was their ethics and commitment to keeping their promise to us. Throughout the project Cultum maintained a strong commitment to meeting our project goals within the allocated timeframe and budget.
They were extremely transparent and always collaborated effectively often raising issues, opportunities for improvement and associated solutions. In working with many developers over a 20-year period we can confidently state that Cultum is well placed to deliver great results across any software development project.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
Whilst Cultum provided a high-quality solution architecture we were required to refactor some of the database queries to improve performance and system response times. When opportunities to improve performance were identified Cultum delivered a solution in a timely fashion.
The result was 4 times the speed of the original solution. In the end if we had spent a little bit more time on solution architecture at the beginning of the project it may have alleviated the need for refactoring down the track.
RATINGS
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Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
"Always deliver solutions that are visually appealing and well architected. Cultum focus on quality development and testing before software release"
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"Very easy. Always available and always attending meetings punctually"
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"Given their level of service and quality Cultum are extremely cost effective in comparison with other agencies"
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"We would have no problem referring Cultum. We are confident they will deliver a great result across any project